Home is Where You Are

Chapter 30

It took me ten months to pay off all my debt and get the car back. Liam was very understanding when I declined his offer to help pay. I told him I got myself into the mess and I need to get myself out.

He did manage to get me a job at a puppy store.

It's not the same as the pet store. It's only puppies at this one.

They pay fourteen dollars an hour and I work forty hours a week. I beg him weekly to let me come home with a puppy. I want a puppy so badly.

I found another apartment, but I don't want to leave Liam.

I want to stay with him.

I've just gotten home from work, and he's already made dinner, and roses are on the counter.

I thank him over and over again, and we eat dinner.

"So, um..." I hesitate over the dinner table. "I found an apartment."

He's quiet for a long time.

"Oh..." He sounds disappointed. "Okay."

"But, I mean, let's get married."

He looks up at me.

"What?"

"Married. Let's get married. Not now, but in July, like we planned."

He sighs slowly.

"What if I don't want to wait till July?" He says. "I want you to be mine now."

"Liam, I've been yours since the day we met."

"Not like that. Not as serious. Not as intimate as marriage. I want you to be my...wife."

He whispers the word.

Wife.

Chills spread through my body.

I'm not going to be just his girlfriend.

I'm not going to be just his fiancé.

I'm going to be his wife, and he's going to be my husband.

He's just my fiancé right now.

He's not my husband.

"Liam, I have to move out." I say. "Just until the wedding. It's not going to feel like we're married."

"So you'll buy all new furniture and an apartment for one month?"

"Yes. When I'm done with it, I'll pass it to Izzy or something. We'll be getting new furniture for our house anyways."

We already sent out wedding invitations to everybody.

He looks sad.

"Abby, I don't want you to leave." He mumbles.

I stand up, taking his plate from in front of him.

"Baby, I'm not leaving forever." I kiss his cheek from behind. "Just for a month, and I'm just a few miles down the road."

"But...but why don't you want to stay with me?"

The house phone starts ringing.

"Babe, it's not that I don't want to stay with you. It's that...I just want it to feel like we really are married when we do get married." I whisper. I'm right behind him, leaning down with my chin on his shoulder.

He stands up.

"I want you to just stay with me." He says, frustrated and upset. "I don't want you to go."